Maia Ponsonnet

Dr. Maia Ponsonnet is an Adjunct Research Fellow in Linguistics at the School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia. She previously served as Senior Lecturer (2017-2021), Linguistics Discipline Chair (2019-2020), and School Graduate Research Coordinator (2020-2021). She holds a PhD in Linguistics from Australian National University and completed postdoctoral research at CNRS.

Her research examines expressivity and emotions in language, focusing on how humans discuss emotions through words, metaphors, and expressive resources. She specializes in Indigenous languages of Australia's Northern Territory, with expertise in Gunwinyguan languages and Kriol.

She has led multiple research grants including ARC DECRA Fellowship (2016-2018) and projects on cultural collections preservation and Indigenous fire knowledge. Her work has received recognition including the 2021 Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.